The publishers are in want of Nos. 1179 and 1180 (dated respectively Jan. 5th and Jan. 12th, 1867) of THE LIVING AGE. To subscribers, or others, who will do us the favor to send us either or both of those numbers, we will return an equivalent, either in our publications or in cash, until our wants are supplied. FOR EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually for. to pay commission for forwarding the money. Price of the First Series, in Cloth, 36 volumes, 90 dollars. THE LAY OF THE GERMAN LINT-MAKERS. | One by one TEAR the smooth linen, pull out the pale threads O'er the thought of the sweet, calm Past The lint-heap rises- like a white foam On the crest of the deep dark billow, The husband's head from the pillow. The lint-heap rises - is it this, is it this, The best we can do for our men, our own For those who left us with quick warm kiss, Awaits, to take up the task down-laid — Why they bind the white badge with the red Round each stout arm, when sounds the alarm To go meet their fellows, the men who have fought, Helpless now, all wearily brought The marriage-stock of linen in Germany is supposed, in ordinary cases, to require no replenishing during the lifetime of the couple. like these pale, pale threads. To rest the torn limbs and the fevered heads In a refuge of hard-won calm. Ah! how endure when that ". worse hap? Work on let the lint-heap rise in the lap. shall For what is War, but a rending asunder Lie shattered beneath the shock of its thunder, And plunging us back in the rude "long ago, Each time thy harsh cry bids gentle arts fly, Yet while kingly strife must be quenched with life, Honoured be they who fight bravely and long, Maintaining the glory of Fatherland's story Thro' the steadfast will and the sinew strong. Where he came to scatter death,- but finds Tear the smooth linen, pull out the pale threads, Are brought on their litters one by one. We'll wrestle and strive to save them alive, - We know not to-day what to-morrow shall hap, From The Edinburgh Review. THE BALTIC PROVINCES OF RUSSIA. many until lately cared little for the fate of this forlorn and distant colony, and it is only the hardships of the last few years which have re-awakened the sympathies of the mother-country. Considering the Ger UNTIL recently the Russian Baltic Provinces have been chiefly known to the British public as a vast granary of corn, and a storehouse of flax, hemp, linseed, and tal-man enthusiasm which manifested itself in the Schleswig Holstein quarrel, it is remarkable how slow the Germans have been to show their sympathy with their kinsmen liv low. Latterly, however, news has reached us from that quarter of a fierce struggle, carried on by the German inhabitants against their Russian masters, who are trying under the dominion of Russia, and exing to suppress the Protestant faith, the posed to pressure infinitely more severe than German language, customs, and laws of any the Danes could inflict. The works these provinces, and to supplant them by placed at the head of this article show, the faith of the Orthodox Church, the Rus- however, that the question has now been sian language, and more especially by the taken up with some vigour, and Dr. peculiar village-tenure of land which pre- Eckardt's excellent volume in English convails in Russia. This struggle represents a tains an able summary of it. phase of the larger conflict now going on in that comparatively narrow tract of land, which separates the Germanic and the Russian world, and stretches under the same longitude from the White Sea to the Transylvanian Alps. This battle-field of hostile races consists of three distinct territories: one Swedish in Finland; another German in Curland, Livland, Esthland; and a third Polish in Lithuania. The three together forming the western boundary of the Russian Empire, but being severally as strange to each other as they are to the race which has incorporated them in its dominion. Each of these territories has a mother-country at its back, on which it leans for support, but the relations between the outposts and the main army are not alike in the three. While the intercourse between Finland and Scandinavia is carried on with energy, and Sweden still cherishes the hope of regaining her former province; while Poles and Lithuanians wrestle united against the common foe; the Baltic Provinces stand nearly isolated in this strife, defending the bulwark of their ancient civilization against the ever-rising tide of Panslavism. Ger The Baltic provinces of the Russian Empire, Curland, Livland, and Esthland (more commonly called by us Livonia and Esthonia), were colonized in the twelfth and thirteenth century by German merchants, knights, and priests, whose number increased so rapidly that the original inhabitants of the country were compelled to acknowledge these Saxons * as lords of the country, and to accept from them the Christian religion. Gradually there arose a federative State, designated by the collective name of Livland (Livonia), which owed allegiance to the Emperor as its liege lord, and to the Pope as its spiritual head. Five bishoprics, Riga, Dorpat, Oesel, Curland, and Lemgallen, shared the dominion of the land with the knightly Order of the Sword and the Teutonic Order, whilst the cities, especially Riga, Reval, and Dorpat, maintained an independent position as members of the Hanseatic League. Between these members of the confederation continual contests went on, in which they expended their best strength. The Bishops waged war with the Orders; the cities with knights and bishops; and even while Russians, Swedes, and Poles threatened to invade the ⚫1. Die baltischen Provinzen Russlands von Dr. land, the rival powers of the country could J. ECKARDT. 2te Aufl. Leipzig: 1869. 2. Geschichtsbilder aus der lutherischen Kirche Livlands von V. HARLESS. Leipzig: 1869. 3. Der deutsch-russische Conflikt an der Ostsee von W. v. Bock. 1869. 4. Der russisch-baltische Kustenstrich in der Gegenwart von JURI SAMARIN. Prag: 1868. 5. Livlandische Antwort an Herrn Juri Samarin von Prof. SCHIRREN. 3te Aufl. Leipzig: 1869. 6. Modern Russia. By Dr. JULIUS ECKARDT. London: 1870. not heal their differences or cease their quarrels. In the sixteenth century two events happened which caused the inevitable overthrow of this complicated structure - the Reformation and the Russian invaWhen the Lutheran doctrine rapidly The Esthnic language designates by the same word, Sara, master and German. sion. Under the humane sceptre of these Protestant Kings, who carefully respected the rights and privileges of their spread from Germany over the Baltic prov- | established Catholic bishoprics, and degradinces, the continuance of this feudal eccle- ed the privileged Protestant faith into a siastic form of government became impossi- tolerated sect; rights and customs were ble. At the same time an invasion of the trampled to the earth by hostile generals country by Ivan the Terrible gave an out- and Polish officials. For thirty years Livward shock of equal force to the old order land had to endure the lawless and unjust of things. The devastation which the un-rule of Poland; and that period was marked fortunate provinces suffered by the inroad by universal ruin and decay; trade and inof those Tartar hordes surpassed the mis-dustry were nearly destroyed; the higheries which the Thirty Years War brought ways which had formerly distinguished the on Germany; it could only be compared to country were broken up and infested by those Mongol inundations which, under robbers; the peasants were reduced to the Zengis Khan, changed the flourishing lands utmost degradation of serfdom; the nobility of Central Asia into a desert, and scattered impoverished and decimated by the endless the ruins of once prosperous cities over a wars; the churches and schools were dilapiwilderness. Down to this present day the dated. At length the Swedo-Polish war of numbers of the population of Livland have succession brought about a more endurable not again reached the height at which they state of things by uniting Livland to the stood previous to Ivan's invasion, and at Swedish crown, whose supremacy Esthland the close of the sixteenth century not a had already acknowledged thirty years fourth part of the cities which once enriched before. and adorned the provinces were left in existence. At the same time, the forces of Sweden and Poland threatened to take ad-new subjects, Livland was restored to the vantage of the Russian invasion; and as no influence of order and civillzation. Gustahelp could be obtained from the Emperor vus Adolphus re-established the Protestant and Diet of Germany, the only question for churches and schools, inaugurated a unithe different parts of the confederation was, versity at Dorpat, remodelled the administo which of the aggressors they should sub-tration of justice, and took effective mit. Esthland, the most northern territory, measures for limiting the serfdom of the surrendered to the King of Sweden; Cur-peasants, and settling the amount of their land, the most southern part, became a Po- forced labour at a fixed proportion to the lish vassal-dukedom, whose wise Prince, land they occupied. Gotthard Kettler, formerly Grand Master Unfortunately the reign of that great of the Teutonic Order, was able to protect and good Prince scarcely lasted long his subjects from Polish encroachments, and enough to allow the country to recover to maintain with rare skill a comparative from the state of utter misery to which the independence; the country remained in this Polish rule had reduced it. Charles XI., in condition more than two hundred years, his financial straits, ventured upon a measand enjoyed during this time, at least, a ure which, under the pretext of overhauling much happier lot than its sister provinces. the defective titles of the nobles, conLivland, by a solemn treaty - the famous fiscated nearly five-sixths of all the LivoPrivilegium Sigismundi, which was to guar-nian estates to the Swedish exchequer. antee for all time her Lutheran faith, the German language, and internal self-government acknowledged the King of Poland as her master. But if the unfortunate prov-ance, its chief, Reinhold Patkul, fled to ince had hoped to buy a happier fate at the price of its independence that hope was craelly disappointed; no sooner was the treaty of 1561 signed than it was violated in nearly every particular. The Jesuits, who were then all-powerful at the Court of Poland, introduced the Catholic religion, The resistance of the Livonian nobility against this arbitrary proceeding was desperate, and when oppressed beyond endur Peter the Great, and directed the Czar's attention to the importance which an extension of his boundaries to the Baltic would have for his new empire. Again Livland became the battle-field of two hostile nations in the great Northern war, until at last, by the Peace of Nystadt (1710), Sweden yielded this province and Esthland | education; the higher classes participated to its more powerful neighbour; but by eagerly in the literary movement of Gerthat same treaty Peter renewed for himself many; the university rose to importance; and his successors the engagement which a provincial press sprang up, and the libbe had taken some years before by a for- eral ideas of the age struck root abundantly mal capitulation with the Baltic Estates, to in so favourable a soil. Yet nowhere in acknowledge and respect in these provinces his vast dominions could the Czar boast of the ascendency of the Lutheran Church, of more faithful subjects, so long as the RusGerman law and language, and of the he-sian Government respected the acknowlreditary institutions of the land. edged rights of the provinces. Their In spite of the goodwill which the Czar nobility furnished the Russian army and manifested towards his new German sub- diplomacy with the ablest of their generals jects, mistakes and misunderstandings oc- and ambassadors. The names of the curred from ignorance of the customs and Lievens, Rosens, Pahlens, Brunnows, Krüdinstitutions, which the provinces prized as ners, Budbergs, Stackelbergs, are inseparthe dearly-bought result of their long his-able from modern Russian history. These tory and of their ancient civilisation; and excellent relations between the Government more than one generation passed away be- and the people, this peaceful development fore the Russian Government had learnt to of the resources of the country, have ununderstand the claims and wishes of its fortunately been deeply disturbed by the Baltic coast lands. The Swedish interfer- Panslavist propaganda, which towards the ence with the existing tenure of land was close of the Emperor Nicolas's reign began immediately cancelled by Peter, and the to attack the peculiar institutions of the nobility were again acknowledged as pro- Baltic provinces of Finland and Poland. prietors; but the war had reduced the But before we enter upon the contest country to utter destitution, from which it which the present generation has to sustain slowly emerged in the second half of the for their national civilisation, we must try eighteenth century. Catherine II. endeav-to give a sketch of the country itself. Its oured to evade the engagements which her external appearance has not much changed ancestors had taken by the Peace of Ny- since the graphic description Lady Eastlake stadt, and to supplant the old constitution gave us of it in her charming "Letters from by an autocratic bureaucracy; but her son the Baltic," we are afraid to say how many Paul restored the rights of the provinces years ago. under that treaty. When, after the final Curland, Livland, and Esthland form, with division of Poland, the maintenance of the the islands belonging to them, a flat terriquasi-independent position of Curland had tory of about 7,000 English square miles, become impossible, this dukedom, after a broken up by no mountain range, but inseparation of 231 years, was once more tersected by numerous little rivers and two reunited to the other two provinces, and large ones, the Duna and the Windau. thus the old Baltic Confederation, inaugu-The climate is in the south that of North rated by the restoration of the University Germany, in the north that of the correof Dorpat, was again re-established under sponding parts of Russia, but tempered by the sceptre of Alexander I., with whose the vast extent of the forests and by the reign a new and hopeful epoch for the neighbourhood of the sea. The populaBaltic provinces began. Their history from 1795 to 1845 is not marked by any striking event; but during that long epoch of peace the country rose gradually to a well-being unknown since the middle ages; serfdom was abolished; the cities flourished again with all the activity of commerce; the clergy, roused by the influence of evangelical enthusiasm and subsequently of rationalism, took up the cause of popular tion, amounting to about 1,850,000, is divided into three parts the Germans and two primeval races, of which the Esths are a Finnish tribe, the Letts a Lithuanian race, whose language has more affinity with Sanscrit than any other spoken in Europe. These aboriginal inhabitants of the country were in former times undoubtedly heavily oppressed by their German masters, but the common sufferings which both endured un |